54 CLASS IV. ORDER I. 



59. CENTAURELLA. 

 Centaurella panicclata. Mich. Late Centaurella. 



Stem branching above ; brandies subdivided ; pan- 

 icle erect, many flowered ; segments of the corolla 

 oval ; style much shorter than the germ. Mich. 

 Syn. Bartonia paniculata. Muhl. 



A slender, upright plant, found in meadows, flowering about 

 August. Stem square, often twisted. Leaves opposite, minute, 

 subulate, resembling scales. Flowers small, white, on the ends 

 of the branches, which are erect and simple or compound. 



60. MITCHELLA. 



MiTCHELLA REPENS. L. Chcqucr hcrrxf . 



A handsome little creeping plant, the only species of its genus. 

 It is found in woods about the roots of trees, creeping in the de- 

 cayed leaves. Sterns furnished with opposite, round, or heart 

 shaped, smooth, petioled leaves, about the size of the finger nail. 

 Corollas purplish white, funnel form, four cleft, hairy within, 

 bearing the stamens in their sinuses. The two calyxes and 

 corollas stand on a common germ, so that two apparent flowers 

 produce only one berry. The blossoms are exceedingly fragrant, 

 and the leaves sometimes variegated. — June, July. — Perennial. 



61. HOUSTONIA. 



HousTOMA coERVLEA. L. Blidsh HousfoTiia. 



Root leaves ovate ; stem compound ; first pedun- 

 cles two flowered. L. 



Common among the grass in moist ground, flowering in May 

 and afterward. The stems are slender, repeatedly forked, the 

 divisions supporting single flowers. The root leaves are spatu- 

 late or oval, tapering into footstalks ; those of the stem opposite, 

 situated at the forks and elsewhere, lance-oval, the upper ones 

 sessile. Flowers smaller than violets, with which they grow. 

 Segments of the calyx erect, pointed. Corolla bluish white, 

 yellow at the centre, consisting of a slender tube with four ovate, 

 acute, spreading segments. Anthers inserted at the mouth of 

 the tube. — Style exserted, stigma bifid. — Perennial. 



